Solid-State Power Amps

The system I used in evaluating the Aragon 8008 consisted of the Denon DP-S1 CD transport and Mark Levinson No.36 D/A converter (the two linked by a Kimber AGDL coaxial digital cable), supplemented by the Theta Data III CD/laserdisc transport and Theta DS Pro Basic III D/A converter. The preamp was a Consummate from the Jeff Rowland Design Group.

All auditioning took place in my (approximately) 26' by 18' by 11' listening room. The loudspeakers used were the Energy Veritas v2.8s, plus brief encounters with the KEF Reference Four, Hales Concept Two, and the Energy C-2. Preamp-to-power-amp interconnects were Cardas Hexlink (unbalanced and balanced). The loudspeakers were bi-wired using a single-jacket, bi-wire-configured pair of Monster M1.5 loudspeaker cables.—Thomas J. Norton